The financial crisis and its excesses have manured a breeding ground where new initiatives are sprouting, aimed at revolutionizing the banking world, or at least at introducing a different outlook, with a certain moral content.
Among these, ethical banking is raising its head, with statistics that show a sustained growth in clientele. The May 15 "indignation" movement has inspired thousands of people to search for alternatives to a traditional banking system that they reject. Ethical banking institutions are attracting more clients than ever, and their growth, though limited, is constant.
The ethical banking sector, composed in Spain of only five entities and somewhere more than 50,000 clients, stands for total transparency. It only invests in the real economy, finances projects related to sectors such as renewable energies and ecological agriculture, and holds social justice to be its own particular Bible.
"I looked at the list of companies I had invested in, and none of them were to my liking. It was a pleasure to tell my bank to withdraw all my investments in the stock market. Then your conscience is a lot clearer, because your money is passing through an ethical filter," says Víctor Maeso, member of an agricultural cooperative at Manresa, near Barcelona.
If you have 2 minutes, you can check everything here: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/english/Ethical/banking/takes/root/in/the/mire/of/the/global/financial/crisis/elpepueng/20110912elpeng_7/Ten
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